Has anyone grown lettuce indoors in the winter??

[miss_thenorth]

Because I want to.

I was thinking I might be able to put it in a flower box in front af a sunny window. Has anyone done this, and if so, does the lettuce taste good? I would do a leaf lettuce.

Thanks all!

 

[The Vail Benton's]

I read something about that on line not too long ago... they reused those plastic containers with lids that strawberries sometimes come in at the grocery store and I thought it looked like a good way to repurpose the containers... I thought I saved the website in my faves but I don't see it there. You could probably just do a quick google search.

 

[Wifezilla]

I am going to try. I have a planter that will fit in the window sill. I also have a few desk lamps that I could use if the natural light isn't enough. Lumens are the key. They need to get at least 2000 or they get all spindly.

 

[delia_peterson]

Great idea! I think I may try this too!

 

[miss_thenorth]

I am going to try. I have a planter that will fit in the window sill. I also have a few desk lamps that I could use if the natural light isn't enough. Lumens are the key. They need to get at least 2000 or they get all spindly.

translate please ( I know--I'm dense ) Lumens? 2000 what? thanks!!

 

[Wifezilla]

Lumens are a measure of light. If you look on the packages for your light bulbs, it should list the amount of lumens given out by the bulb. Compact fluorescent bulbs that are 150 watt equivalent are really close to 2000 lumens. I haven't been able to find any locally, so I use 2 100W. This gave me viable seedlings form early starts for the first time EVER this spring. I started tomatoes and peppers this way.

This will be my first attempt at winter growing using CFLs. I have a spare room and I need to get something set up for my stevia plant. Leaves around here are already changing.

 

[patandchickens]

It doesn't work very well IME -- but of course if it's a fun project thing, then certainly try it anyway

You need somewhere around 10 hrs of light per day, minimum, to get reasonably active growth. Meaning for about 6 wks aroundthe solstice not much will happen without artificial lighting. Even *with* artificial lighting, you can get some growth but IME not a lot and it doesn't taste especially good.

You might consider (in addition of course to your lettuce project ) some sort of insulated coldframe arrangement for spinach and other truly cold-tolerant greens. Again, not so much for the period around the solstice, but starting in late Feb or so you can get some reasonable growth if you can manipulate temperature properly with your setup.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat